Central Square of Kiev, Ukraine
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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on Monday damaged sanctions against seven Kremlin-linked individuals and four entities for trying to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The U.S. Treasury Department described the specific sanctions as the “inner circle” of Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, which was sanctioned last year. Derkach has previously worked with Rudy Giuliani to unearth harmful information about President Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent, President-elect Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
“At least since 2019, Derkach and his associates have taken advantage of U.S. media, U.S.-based social media platforms, and influential U.S. people to spread misleading, unfounded allegations that current and former US officials were engaged in corruption, money laundering and illegal political influence in Ukraine, “the Treasury wrote in a statement.
Giuliani has acted as Trump’s personal lawyer and his efforts to get Ukraine to initiate an investigation into the Bidens led to Trump’s ouster more than a year after the president withheld military aid to Ukraine while calling for such an investigation.
“Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote in a statement Monday without naming Biden or Trump. “The United States will continue to aggressively defend the integrity of our electoral systems and processes.”
In September, the Treasury imposed sanctions on Derkach, who described him as a “Russian agent active for more than a decade” with close connections to Russian intelligence services.
“From at least late 2019 to mid-2020, Derkach conducted a covert campaign of influence focused on cultivating false, unfounded narratives about U.S. officials in the upcoming 2020 presidential election,” he said. write the Treasury in a statement then.
Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach attends a press conference entitled “Publication of facts of pressure from the US embassy on Ukrainian police agencies to interfere in the electoral process in the US,” in Kiev, Ukraine, on 9 d October 2019.
Gleb Garanich | Reuters
Treasury sanctioned three former Ukrainian government officials, Konstantin Kulyk, Oleksandr Onyshchenko and Andriy Telizhenko, as well as Oleksandr Dubinsky, the current member of the Ukrainian parliament for publicly joining Derkach.
Kulyk, a former prosecutor in the Ukrainian government, worked with Derkach to spread false accusations of international corruption, according to the Treasury.
Onyshchenko provided Derkach with edited audio recordings of alleged conversations between former Ukrainian and American officials. Derkach later released the recordings to discredit U.S. officials and the integrity of U.S. elections.
Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian diplomat, orchestrated meetings between Derkach and American individuals to discuss how to spread false claims.
Dubinsky, who acts alongside Derkach in the Ukrainian parliament, has previously perpetuated “false narratives” designed to “denigrate U.S. presidential candidates and their families,” according to the Treasury.
Treasury also sanctioned NabuLeaks, Era-Media TOV, Only News and Skeptik TOV, which were described as “media companies in Ukraine that promote false narratives at the behest of Derkach.”
Treasury also targeted Petro Zhuravel, Dmytro Kovalchuk and Anton Simonenk, who worked for Derkach.